Living The Good Life

# 11 Learn to knit and/or crochet

Knitting the night away

I have a confession to make: I secretly wish I was Martha Stewart. Well, a younger, better looking, more fashionably dressed Martha who has never been to jail, that is. Obviously, I love to bake. I enjoy hosting parties, my dinner table always has a seasonly themed runner (sewn by yours truly) and is decorated with seasonal floral arrangements. Finally, I love crafts. Turning a pile of fabric into a dress, a bunch of paper scraps into a scrapbook, something old and worn out into something useful, well, you get the idea. So, my desire to learn knitting or crocheting was a natural fit. I looked into them a little bit before deciding which one I wanted to do and I like the look of knitted projects better than crochet. I think of crochet as being a little bit old lady-ish.

So, I bought a starter kit and some fun colored yarn and I was off! Let me tell you this, it is a really weird skill when you are first starting out. Your hands are in a strange position and they each need to be doing two different things at once. It seemed like it took me forever before I felt a purpose in what I was doing and I understood the way the stitches sit on the needles and why you do things a certain way to get a certain result. When I was doing my practice swatch I kept thinking to myself that this takes way too flipping long. I figured that after I cranked out my first project I would give it up completely. I read up on it a little more to see how I could make things go quicker so I could be done with my dreadful knitting experience. I changed up my needles and my yarn  to what is the equivalent of those giant pens they have that are easy for children to grip and I was off! (again) My first scarf probably took me four or five nights total and something surprising happened: I fell in love with knitting. The satisfaction that I always get after all my other craft projects was finally there! I started on a hat and I finished that within a week too and now I can’t stop! I love it! I’ve even started an informal knitting group with a friend of mine who is more experienced and can help me get past any rough spots I have in a project. What started out as something I couldn’t stand turned into my new favorite hobby!

My first hat and scarf!

It’s always nice to stumble upon one of my tasks. It sometimes feels like I plan for them for months in advance, but when I woke up today I had no idea I would do:

  #81 Have My Tarot Cards Read

I’ve always been skeptical of the fortune-telling business as a whole. I firmly believe you make your own path in life and how you handle obstacles on that path can change everything. So, how does one predict that? There must be a reason that this ancient profession has stayed popular for so long and despite my doubts that I would be told anything accurate, it has always seemed like a fun thing to do. Who knows, they might actually say something good.

I was at the Renaissance Faire in Kenosha, WI for the day when my sister-in-law mentioned the fortune-telling booths, knowing that it was something I was interested in. It was 20 dollars to find out my future and the woman was dressed in Renaissance garb which added to the amusement of the situation. She was a very nice woman though and she explained how the cards work very well. I was first instructed to hold the deck in my hands, close my eyes and take a deep cleansing breath. I then had to shuffle the deck and cut it into three stacks. She pulled cards from one stack only and laid them face down in a pattern. As she turned over each card she explained what it meant in my life. To be honest, a lot of it actually made sense. I was trying my best not to react too much to the things she was saying so I wouldn’t feed her too much information about myself. She told me that there was a recent new love in my life that I had been waiting for awhile and this new relationship was a good reward for my patience. Also, she told me that I’ve been making plans for a new phase of my life and this new love ties into that. Both of these things are true. A few of the things were very general, like the fact that this next year is going to be a good energy year and I’m going to want to take on new things. The other general one was that I’m going to be seeing the affects of karma a lot this coming year. So, be nice to me otherwise karma is coming for you! But a lot of the things she told me were very specific. I don’t think I’m suddenly going to become one of those people that has to call those psychic hotlines all the time, but I’ve lost some of my skepticism. I can see myself going again in the future, but I’m sure the woman that read my cards already knows that.

Last week, I successfully completed two more numbers on my list, while on a family trip to Alaska. It was a great vacation. We got to see and do things that are once-in-a-lifetime experiences. I saw whales that weren’t in an aquarium

A group of humpback whales surfacing for what's known as bubble feeding

or Sea World. We went on the world’s largest zipline, flying over mountaintops and every tree imaginable. I saw a glacier up close and personal. There is no way to describe the way it sounds to hear the ice cracking and see giant chunks of it fall into the ocean, as loud as thunder. Very unique trip and one that I’ll never forget. One of the many amazing things I did was

  #63 Ride in a helicopter

There's me in the front seat of the helicopter!

According to my Dad, I have in fact been on a helicopter before. When he asked me why I don’t remember I said “Well, how old was I and where was this at?” His reply: “You were probably about 2 and it was at the Sandwich Fair.” I’m pretty sure anything I did under the age of three I’m not going to have perfect recall of and if it was over the Sandwich Fair I probably saw no need to remember it since it was probably boring. I’ve made up for that first ride in a big way by getting to see some of the gorgeous scenery Alaska has to offer. I did this adventure without any friends or family, which was unfortunate because I would have loved for them to be there. I was loaded into the helicopter with 5 other tourists such as myself and our pilot, it was a tight fit to say the least. We had to wear headsets to talk to one another because the sound of the helicopters is insanely loud. I had expected a choppy ride but it was a very smooth take off and landing and the ride itself was surreal. Seeing mountains, waterfalls, glaciers and lakes from that angle is really unusual. You get so close to them. It’s something you could never experience just by flying overhead in a plane. It’s not the cheapest thing in the world but I would definitely recommend saving up the money for it. Just make sure you fly over somewhere more interesting than the Sandwich Fair!

Glacier view

Mountain View

My helicopter ride took me all the way up to Mendenhall Glacier where I was able to finish:

  #91 Go Dogsledding

First, they drop you in the middle of a glacier surrounded by snow which is around 35-40 degrees this time of year. When only 20 minutes ago you were down at sea level at about 55-60 degrees, that in itself throws you for a loop. Then you see the camp they have setup. That’s right, camp! People actually live up on this glacier with the dogs during the summer months and only come down once a week to shower! Definitely not my kind of life! There was probably about 200 dogs up there and they each had their own little house to sleep in if they were cold. They were all sitting outside of them though because they prefer the temperature around -20 to be comfortable. We were split up and assigned to different groups of dogs so that there was 4 people including me and our musher. There was two sleds attached to each group of dogs and everyone got to take turns sitting and hanging out in the sleds or standing up on the back sled and driving. I was sitting down in the front sled when we first took off. The dogs were all lined up and they were so excited to run that they started jumping up and down and barking right before we left. Then as soon as we started moving they were completely focused on the their job.

Driver's perspective

What I never really thought about when I see people dogsledding is how slow they’re moving. I always assumed that they went at least 20-30 miles per hour but we were only going about 8. Our musher said that even in races like the Iditarod they only get up to 12-15 miles per hour since this is an endurance sport not a speed sport. Our ride was somewhat bumpy and lasted about 30 minutes total. We gave our dogs a few breaks along the way since they were so warm. It was really cute to see them curl up in the snow or eat big mouthfuls of it during breaktime. The best part was when I was in back driving the sled. It isn’t too difficult because the musher gives you detailed instructions. You’re standing on what I can only describe as skis attached to the sled and holding onto the handle in front of you feeling every bump much more than when you’re sitting. You get to lean into the curves and step on the brake lightly when going down hill to keep the sleds from crashing into the dogs. It was actually really relaxing. The mountains rising up all around us and being so high up from the city made everything unusually quiet and peaceful, even with all the dogs there. My ride had to come to an end unfortunately. We were then able to meet and pet all the dogs on our team. We weren’t allowed before or during our ride because it distracts them from their work. They were all so cute! Many of them are real racing dogs and they get sent to this camp to keep them in shape during their off season. If I could have spent a whole day up there riding around with them and playing with them I would have. It’s something I’ll probably never have the chance to do again and I’m so glad I did it. Incredible experience!

I drove us back into camp where the dogs promptly sat down for a rest

Today is a celebration. Why, you may ask. Because today is my blog’s 1st birthday! It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already. In honor of his 1st birthday, I gave Bloggy a new look as you can see and added a few new sections. An About Me section for the random stranger who happens on my site. A United States section so I can keep track of which states I’ve been to so far per #1. Also a page to keep track of the 1001 movies to see before I die (#82). I’m not taking the time to sit and type in all 1001 and then check them off so I’ll just add them as I watch them.

So let’s take a look back and see what I accomplished this past year:

Go on a ghost tour of an old city

Learn how to drive stick shift

Take a pole dancing aerobics class

Go to the Greek Isles

Donate blood

See an opera

Ride a mechanical bull

Run a 5k

Go to Ireland and kiss the Blarney Stone

Be in a newspaper for something

Learn how to drive a motorcycle

11 things crossed off in a year, not too shabby. I’m averaging about 1 item per month, so let’s see, I’ll do some quick math…..or some slow math usually in my case. If I keep this rate up, then it will only take me another…..7 years to finish. SEVEN. YEARS.  ………..I think I need to pick up the pace a little bit. So, once again I’m begging for some help from my lovely family and friends, anyone who has some spare time and a little knowledge or experience that they want to impart with me, please, PLEASE, go through The List and see if you can help me cross one off.

Still though, it’s been a pretty good year. It’s been pretty cool everytime I see a friend or family member I haven’t seen in awhile and they tell me that they actively read my blog. It’s very encouraging. Also, I’m still going strong in my karate classes. For anyone wondering, I’m now an orange belt (Ooooh! aaaah!) Which is my second belt promotion since I started last September. I only have 8 belts to go, which should take me about 3.5 to 4 more years(!). I’ve gotten to go to some new countries. I’ve been able to see and do some pretty amazing things this year. I often take for granted how blessed I really am to have so many opportunities. This coming year I definitely want to focus on some of the things on The List where I can give back to others.

For those of you that have been loyal readers since day 1. Thanks! Keep it up! Your comments and support help me keep going!

I spent the past weekend knocking another number off my list:

#64 Learn how to ride a motorcycle

That's me, third in line

The desire for #64 probably came from watching movies as a kid (and as an adult) and seeing all the bad ass heroes and heroines jump on their bikes and race off from impending danger, usually while wearing a cool looking leather jacket. I wanted to be one of those bad asses! Also the more practical side of me argues that being able to zip around where cars can’t and saving some money on gas are both positives. So, I signed up for a motorcycle class for beginners, no skill, equipment or bike required. I learned about this class from my mom’s husband who used to teach it awhile ago. He insisted that it’s a very good class and that I would learn a lot. Plus if you pass their test than you don’t have to perform a motorcycle test at the DMV. The biggest plus in their favor is that it only costs $20 and if you decide you want that $20 back at the end of the course than you can get a refund! Who knew such deals existed! The registration for classes starts in February and you have to look out for it so you can register online because they fill up fast! I waited online at midnight to sign up for mine and made it in.

The schedule for the class went like this: Friday 6pm-10pm, Sat/Sun 6:45am-4pm. Not too horrible besides the early start. My main problem was that since my job is weekend-based I had to cram all of my work into the limited times between classes and ended up completely wearing myself out in the mean time. Add in the fact that I was barely sleeping due to excitement/nerves and you get a hot mess. Throughout this past weekend, I was and still am as I write this, more exhausted than I have been in a long time. The classroom work you do in the program is boring and predictable, similar to driver’s ed. The real learning was by doing. I was very nervous when we first started working with the bikes. They walk you through what to do very well though and before I knew it I had gotten my bike started up and was puttering around in first gear. It’s a lot harder than motorcyclists make it look when you first start to learn! There are a lot of motions that need to be cooridinated to give you a smooth ride. They took us through 16 different excercises on Saturday and today. You get to change gears, stop quickly, ride over 2′ by 4′s (that part was my favorite). Considering I had never been on a bike before, I’ve learned quite a bit this weekend. Unfortunately though, since I was so tired my brain wasn’t functioning at top speed. It seemed to be taking me longer than most to get down each move. I hate feeling like I’m doing poorly at anything so I would start getting frustrated which would only make matters worse. I went to bed yesterday night pretty much dreading class this morning because I felt like I was doing so badly. We got back on this morning and I did better than yesterday but it was still a lot to take in. Before I knew it my test was about to start. We had to do U-turns in a box, swerve to avoid an obstacle, a quick stop and lean into a curve. I was really nervous and I felt like I did ok but not great. We took a lunch break and came back to do a written test and then we found out our scores.

Unfortunately, I failed.

I only missed one question on my written test, but my riding wasn’t as good as I thought it had been. I was upset at first about my results but then I took it into perspective and realized that yesterday morning I had never driven a motorcycle and today I was doing swerves and riding over boards. I’m not really decided if I ever have a desire to drive one again. There were parts in class that I was so frustrated that I hated it and wondered if I’m just not the motorcycling type. Then there were times when the wind was blowing and I was doing laps and it was a very relaxing feeling. So I’ll give it a little time and then see if I want to try and take the test at the DMV. The class itself was a very good learning experience regardless of my results. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn to ride. If you’re interested in this class Click Here. I will say that even if I had passed I would not really feel street ready. There is only so much you can learn in two days and at no point during class did we go over 25 miles an hour. Since your average speed limit is slightly higher than that a lot of practice after class would be a really good idea. I finished it though and if I’m ever starring in a movie and I need to jump on my motorcycle and ride away from the murderer/aliens/zombies then I could probably manage….I think

I told Stephen he could come watch me ride if I didn't know that he was there, he did awesome! I was clueless

Yesterday, while going about my business and doing my job like I always do. I unknowingly crossed off:

#89 Be in a newspaper for something

For as long as I’ve been at my job, a middle school in the area called Glen Crest has a giant end of year party for their graduating 8th graders. In the past few years, the students have been designing cardboard wedding cakes for one of their classes (we definitely didn’t do anything this cool when I was in school!). The students decide on the top 5 cakes amongst themselves and then I decide which one wins and I turn it into a real cake for their big shin-dig. That party went down yesterday. During the middle of the party, my boss came back into the kitchen being trailed by some guy with a camera and said this guy wanted to interview me. I groaned, secretly delighted, but then he just asked for my name! So, I didn’t think anything of it until later. My boss called me into the office and told me to look at what he had found on the computer. It was a tiny little article about the party and the winning cake and my name was in it! It’s not a real print newspaper which is sort of disappointing but since print journalism is on its way out we’re going to count it. It’s pretty exciting to see my name in there instead of just the generic title of Pastry Chef. Especially since it’s for an accomplishment of mine in my career.

So, here’s the link to my kick ass newspaper mention: Click Here

#5. Go to Ireland and kiss the Blarney Stone

One of my favorite pictures from the trip, everytime I look at it I feel like I'm back there

I just got back from a week long stay in the Emerald Isle, aka Ireland. I have one word for how I feel about Ireland as a whole: LOVE. I loved it there. The scenery is simply amazing. Everyone I met was incredibly friendly, even people on the street will tell you to “mind your laces” if your shoe is undone. Plus driving along and seeing the random castle or round tower on the side of the road or in the middle of a neighbourhood is just plain cool. I was lucky enough to have a tour guide who knew his way around, my man Stephen, who is from there originally. Which meant he knew all of the places I should and shouldn’t see and we were able to stay with his family while we were over there. We saw a lot of neat things, from waterfalls (and sheep), to the signature rolling green hills (and sheep), the Guinness storehouse,  monastic settlements (and sheep) to castles (and did I mention the sheep?). My favorite, as I had a feeling it would be, was going to Blarney Castle and kissing the Blarney stone. What is the Blarney Stone you might ask? Well according to Wikipedia an early story says this: “ Cormac Laidir MacCarthy, the builder of Blarney Castle, being

Blarney Castle

involved in a lawsuit, appealed to Clíodhna the goddess for her assistance. She told MacCarthy to kiss the first stone he found in the morning on his way to court, and he did so, with the result that he pleaded his case with great eloquence and won. Thus the Blarney Stone is said to impart “the ability to deceive without offending.” MacCarthy then incorporated it into the parapet of the castle.” So, ever since then people like myself have been climbing to the top of the castle and half dangling off the ledge to kiss the magical stone in the hopes for the gift of gab. Back in the day they would hold you by your ankles and lower you down to kiss it. Which since you’re several stories up was potentially fatal. They took all of the fun out of it though and have since added some iron handrails

Leaning in for a big smooch, tongue optional

now that you hold and you have to slide the top half of your body off while someone holds you and then you do a bit of a backbend to kiss the stone. Still unsettling if you have a fear of heights. Another fear to look out for if you want to do this: claustrophobia. Blarney castle is full of tiny corridors and winding dark stairs to climb to get to the top. Definitely not for everyone. I loved it though! It’s fascinating to me that people used to live like that. I also loved the grounds that the castle was set on. Beautiful trees and ponds with hills in the background, every bit what you expect Ireland to look like. There is one more fear that might stop you from becoming the most eloquent you that you can be and that is: mysophobia (otherwise known as a fear of germs). Only the good Lord knows how many people have kissed that stone and quite frankly the good Lord can keep that information to himself. The stone is set in a way that it gets washed off when it rains which is pretty frequently and in the lovely tour book I bought it claims they sanitize it several times daily. I also went to the bathroom and washed my lips off afterwards just in case and that is just going to have to be good enough. I wonder though if my lip scrubbing washed away my new found silver tongue because I haven’t felt any more chatty since then. Either way, I really enjoyed it and the rest of my trip to Ireland. I would go back in a heartbeat. I have to give a shout out to the man who made it possible: Stephen! You’re the bomb-diggity! Thanks so much for taking me, I’ll never forget it! Lots of Love.

A few more pictures from the trip that I love:

Downing my very first pint like a pro

Look how tiny I am compared to this massive waterfall!

Castles and cool looking ancient cemetaries? Yes, please!

(more…)

This past Saturday morning I finished:

# 39 Run a 5K

Pumped and ready to win it! Hahahaha....win it, that's a good one

Let’s rewind my life about 10 years to my high school gym class and see what we can find. Ah, there I am! Do you see me? I’m the sweaty, red-faced, out of breath girl doing the mile in about 15 minutes. Yes, you read that correctly, 15 minutes. Sports, in particular sports in gym class, held no appeal for me. I wasn’t overweight but I had no interest in working out or eating healthy. Somewhere between then and now I realized that the way you treat your body has a huge impact on what your body can do for you. So, I started working out more and watching what I eat (a bit of an oxymoron since I work as a Pastry Chef). I remember a teacher at college telling me about the 5k he had just run and how he did them all the time and loved it. I thought to myself, “What the hell, this guy’s old!” (in fairness he was probably only in his forties). If he could do it, I had better be able to do it too. Which is how running a 5k made The List.

I didn’t have a particular charity in mind that I wanted to run for so basically I went on this sight called Active.com and looked for one that was close enough to drive to. I saw the Bunny Dash in Palatine and decided that with a name that innocent and cute sounding, how bad could it be? I was not aware that you should give yourself at least 6 weeks to train for a 5k if you want to do well, so I only had a little over 3. My training in those 3 weeks consisted of me running a mile in my neighborhood every other day and then thinking to myself, “I’ll try and do 2 miles next time.” Which I never actually managed to do. Before I knew it, the week of my run was here and due to my lack of planning I was feeling a little nervous. None the less, I picked up my cute little T-shirt and “goodie-bag” (in my opinion a goodie bag should have more than a spirulina bar (otherwise known as an algae bar) and some “energy gum”). Stephen was kind enough to get up at 7:45 with me and drive me there and be my moral support. The unfortunate part was that I had developed some cold and/or allergy symptoms the night before so I hadn’t slept much and couldn’t breath through my nose. Which only heightened my fear that I might collapse half way through. I was dropped off at the race and I made my way to where the runners were lining up. There was different sections to stand in depending on your speed. Since I had been averaging a 9-10 minute mile in my “training” I decided to pace myself and go in the 11-12 minute mile section. It was sort of cool seeing everyone getting ready to go, it gets your adrenaline going to have all these people pumped up around you. We weren’t waiting long before the clock started and we were off! The first mile seemed a lot easier compared to running it by myself at home. I would normally have felt the need to give myself a little break….or just stop completely.  I kept going at my pace though. I didn’t start feeling winded until I reached the end of the second mile, but when I heard my time  of 21.20 it made me feel better to know that I was keeping a decent speed going so that helped me keep from stopping. I don’t think I have ever in my life run more than 2 miles in one shot. The fact that I finished the first 2 and was still able to keep going was pretty exciting.  The third mile itself was a different story though. That’s when I really started to feel it. Around the 2.5 mile mark I had worked myself up into the irrational notion that this race was never going to end and I was stuck in some kind of parallel universe where I would be forced to run forever. I slowed to something that wasn’t quite a walk but probably looked like a drunken man’s shuffle accompanied by an asythmatic child’s wheezing. I didn’t want to walk though because I knew I wouldn’t be able to get going again once I stopped. It was a little discouraging when the soccer mom jogged past me pushing the stroller with two kids in it, but then I heard the sound of a large group of people. Oh, sweet merciful baby Jesus! I was coming towards the end! This is it! I really tried to kick it up a notch at this point and finish strong. At least that’s what I told myself but really I just wanted to stop all this ridiculous running nonsense. Then I saw the finish line and I could feel myself smiling. I did it! And it only took me 34.10! Which some of you serious runners may laugh at but for me that’s a far cry from the 15 minute miles I was doing in high school. Honestly, this was one of the more rewarding things to cross off my list. It was very exciting to see what my body was capable of with a little pushing. After I had recovered, I decided I would definitely do it again. Next time I want to try and train properly and get my time down.

In this two person race, I'm the winner!

Friday night, me and my girls went into the city to a little place called Hogs and Honeys, with the express purpose of completing:

Me and Benny

#100 Ride a Mechanical Bull

I usually start each post by explaining why I have the desire to do the task I just completed, but honestly I have no idea where this one came from. I think it has something to do with the fact that as a kid (and maybe sometimes even now) I was the biggest chicken ever. Everytime I saw someone doing anything even remotely dangerous I worried that if I participated I would break a leg, get a concussion or do something that required stitches. Apparently I had a really morbid imagination as a child. Somewhere along the way, it occurred to me that if so many people could get away with doing crazy things without horrible injuries then I probably could too. So I began going on carnival rides (laugh all you want those things are freaky!) , doing zip lines, climbing rock walls and getting a bit more dangerous.  Riding a real bull is one of those scary things I always thought people were crazy for doing, but a mechanical bull was a bit more in my reach. It seemed like one of those things that you would only find in the south so I wasn’t really sure where to go to do this. In my last post, I asked my loyal readers (all 10 of them) if they knew of a place and one of you came through for me (Thanks Megan!). There were five girls total in our group that night. The bar was a different experience from our usual hangouts, their decor could be described as “Dirty Western” and the DJ asked the other clientele to participate in a rousing game of “Who can make the best fake orgasm noise”. I suppose if they had a mechanical bull in the middle of a martini bar it wouldn’t be the same experience. As soon as we got there a couple of people had their turn on “Benny the Bull” and immediately I felt some of my old nerves come back. It didn’t help that I had heard from a friend that very day that he had dislocated a shoulder on Benny himself. I put it off for an hour or so while we had drinks and watched the antics around us. The queue kept growing and I couldn’t back down with my friends there so I took my place in line and watched people get thrown off in quick succession. The signing of the waiver before paying my two dollars to ride didn’t do much to make me feel better, but before I knew it I was next in line. I hopped on and smiled nervously at my friends in the crowd waiting for it to begin and trying to remember the bull riding tips Megan had found for me on the internet. Then it started and it was really fun! You can’t help but laugh hysterically the whole time as you bounce around and you try not to slide all over the place but its impossible. As was inevitable, I fell off and my landing was very soft and airy. I will say that my ride was not completely pain free though. My thighs have been killing me ever since! It was a really fun time though! Not sure if I plan on going back anytime soon…..

Here are my bull riding tips:

- Hold onto the rope with your dominant hand.

-Raise your other hand in the air the whole time to keep your balance

-Grip more with your thighs than with your hand

-When the bull leans forward, lean your body back and vice versa

Also, Does anyone know of a Corvette I can drive or a celebrity I can meet?

Hey everybody! 2 Months have gone by without me posting! How did that happen? I haven’t forgotten my list though and I got another one done:

#78 Go to an Opera

Me in the lobby of the Lyric Opera House

A couple weeks ago, I went into the city for a lovely trip to the Lyric Opera House to see the Masked Ball. Now, I may or may not have always wanted to go to the opera because they went to one in the movie Pretty Woman. I’m just throwing it out there and saying it’s a possibility. For those of you familiar with the movie, I’m going to do a little compare and contrast between Julia Roberts character Vivienne’s experience and mine. If you aren’t familiar with the movie, Netflix it for crying out loud! It’s a classic!

1. Opera glasses

Vivienne’s experience: She thinks her opera glasses are broken but in actuality she is not holding them correctly. Come to find, lack of common sense makes you charming to some men.

My experience: They don’t even give you opera glasses! Luckily, our seats were good and we could see just fine.

2. The language barrier

Vivienne’s experience: She expresses her worries to her employer….I mean her date….about not being able to enjoy the opera because it is all in Italian.  A 20 years younger, yet oddly still gray haired, Richard Gere calms her fears by  saying, “Don’t worry; you’ll understand.” And of course she does.

My experience: Operas are three hours long and entirely in Italian, so I shared Vivienne’s concern. Luckily, we live in a country of oversimplification and they had a screen above the stage with translations scrolling throughout the entire production. This made me feel a little stupid. If Vivienne, a lady of the night, could understand it without subtitles, then why the hell can’t I? So, now I’ll never know if I can or not because have you ever tried not reading the text as it comes up on a screen? It’s really difficult! I’m pretty sure I would have understood it without them…..I think

3.Love it or Hate it

Vivienne’s experience: Gere’s character Edward tells her that people either initially love the opera or they don’t and those that don’t can never truly learn to love it.

My experience: Not sure if there is any truth to what Edward said but I really enjoyed it. I was thinking it was going to drag but it didn’t. To sum it up, the story was interesting, the performers’ voices are unbelievable, I loved the orchestra and the Lyric Opera House is a truly gorgeous building. I can’t speak for everyone though because the guy sitting next to me that got dragged along by his wife was definitely snoring during most of it.

If you want to see an opera yourself I highly recommend Lyric Opera of Chicago

Sidenote: Does anyone know of a place, preferably in Illinois, where I could ride a mechanical bull?